Vocabulary

How Strong is Your Core Latin Vocabulary?

Check What You Know

Vocabulary may be the most essential part of learning a language. If you don't know what words to use, how can you speak, read, or listen to a different language? That's where core vocabulary comes into the picture. Your core words are the most important ones in the language - the most basic bricks you'll need to build up your language skills. In the case of Latin, these are the words you'll see most frequently in the works of the great authors. If you're going to learn any Latin vocabulary (and let's face it, you're here, aren't you?), these are the most important words.

What are Latin's Core Words?

Dr. Chris Francese at Dickinson College has done great work at identifying the top thousand words for Latin, and he's been kind to both publish his list online here and allow me to use it on my own site. Check out the Dickinson College Commentaries (the DCC) site to learn more about these core words and how Dr. Francese chose the words he did. On average, about 70% of the words in any given Latin work are included in this list.

What can I do here?

I have taken Dr. Francese's list of almost a thousand Latin words, and created thousands of multiple choice questions, ranging from simple definitions (English to Latin and vice versa) to meta-knowledge, like gender or case dependency. You have two options. (1) You can practice these words, and see how many you can get right; (2) you can take a diagnostic quiz and compare your results to everyone else. But beware on the quiz, speed affects your final score, so don't look words up - just go with your gut instinct!

Here are some resources.

LatinTutorial

Latin doesn't have to be hard, and with the help of online descriptions of complicated grammatical topics, I hope it isn't. If you're a teacher, feel free to use these videos in your class, either to flip the learning, or for review. If you're a student, learn as much as you can. Check out the about page for more information.